Sypeck, Jeff

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Sypeck, Jeff

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Delaware, B.A.; University of New Hampshire, M.A. (literature); Catholic University of America, M.A. (Medieval and Byzantine Studies).

ADDRESSES:

Office—English Department, University College, University of Maryland, 3501 University Blvd. E., Adelphi, MD 20783.

CAREER:

Writer, consultant, and educator. University of Maryland, University College, Adelphi, instructor in English.

WRITINGS:

The Holy Roman Empire and Charlemagne in World History, Enslow Publishers (Berkeley Heights, NJ), 2002.

Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800, Ecco (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Washington Post and Salon.com.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author Jeff Sypeck considers the history and accomplishments of one of the more famous Frankish kings and Roman emperors in Becoming Charlemagne: Europe, Baghdad, and the Empires of A.D. 800. Charlemagne, whose life has taken on legendary status over the centuries, was indeed a monarch of considerable accomplishment. Although he is referred to in some sources as King Charles, Sypeck calls the great king Karl, noting in an interview with Peter C. Hansen on the Legal History Project Web site: "I went with the K because it's phonetic, it looks more Germanic to English speakers, and it's the spelling on documents from his later, imperial years."

In the book, Sypeck "affectionately peers behind the legends surrounding Charlemagne and magnificently chronicles four significant years in the emperor's life," noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. During the years 796 to 800 A.D., Charlemagne presided over a consolidation of his kingdom via a combination of military action, political treaty-making, and religious diplomacy with neighboring Muslims. He was a king with a great respect for others, with a reverence for books and education, and with a reputation for being fair but stern when needed. Charlemagne's greatest accomplishments, and the ones that followed him into legend, came after Pope Leo III made him Emperor of Rome in 800.

In addition to chronicling the rise of Charlemagne, Sypeck also looks at the lives of the monarch's subjects, and details the everyday labors and activities that formed the underpinning of Charlemagne's restored Roman empire. He considers the emperor's many friends and supporters, and looks at several unique aspects of Charlemagne's personality and rule. Sypeck also uncovers much notable information about Charlemagne, including the fact that he was never referred to by that name when he was alive. "‘Charlemagne’ is a name that the man himself never heard; it's the French contraction of the Latin Carolus Magnus, ‘Charles the Great,’" Sypeck stated in the interview with Hansen. "Charlemagne is a character in medieval poems and modern storybooks. Karl, king of the Franks, was the living, breathing historical figure."

"Aimed at a general audience, this short, well-written book tells the story very accessibly," remarked Robert Harbison in the Library Journal. Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor called Becoming Charlemagne "an inspired, instantly readable work of popular history." A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that Sypeck's account successfully "illuminates the shadowy corners of an era shrouded in the mists of legend."